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Tropiocolotes tripolitanus PETERS, 1880

IUCN Red List - Tropiocolotes tripolitanus - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaGekkonidae, Gekkota, Sauria, Squamata (lizards: geckos)
SubspeciesTropiocolotes tripolitanus occidentalis PARKER 1942
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus apoklomax PAPENFUSS 1969
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus tripolitanus PETERS 1880 
Common NamesE: Northern Sand Gecko
G: Tripolitanischer Zwerggecko 
SynonymTropiocolotes tripolitanus PETERS 1880: 306
Stenodactylus tripolitanus — BOULENGER 1885: 19
Tropiocolotes apoklomax PAPENFUSS 1969
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus — KLUGE 1993
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus — SCHLEICH, KÄSTLE & KABISCH 1996: 282
Tropiocolotes (Tropiocolotes) tripolitanus — RÖSLER 2000: 119
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus — BAUER et al. 2013
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus — MACHADO et al. 2020

Tropiocolotes tripolitanus apoklomax PAPENFUSS 1969
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus apoklomax — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008

Tropiocolotes tripolitanus occidentalis PARKER 1942
Tropiocolotes occidentalis PARKER 1942: 47
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus occidentalis — BAHA EL DIN 2001
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus occidentalis — RÖSLER 2000
Tropiocolotes occidentalis occidentalis — SCHLÜTER 2004
Tropiocolotes occidentalis — KRAUSE et al. 2013

Tropiocolotes tripolitanus tripolitanus PETERS 1880
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus tripolitanus — BAHA EL DIN 2001
Tropiocolotes tripolitanus tripolitanus — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008 
DistributionMorocco, Algeria (Sahara, Kenadsa/Colomb Bechar), Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia, Mali, Sudan, Chad

apoklomax: Mali; Type locality: Sanga, Mali.

occidentalis: Western Sahara, Mauritania; Type locality: Rio de Oro.

tripolitanus: Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Sudan, Chad (Krause et al. 2013).

Type locality: “Uadi M’bellum, Tripolitanien” [Libya]  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype: ZMB 9668A; designated by BAUER & GÜNTHER 1991
Holotype: CAS 103209 [apoklomax]
Holotype: BMNH 1946.8.27.50 [occidentalis] 
DiagnosisDiagnosis (genus): Tropiocolotes species are very small, ranging from about 29–40 mm in maximum SVL. They are of slight build and rather elongate. As in all gekkonids, eyelids do not function. Tropiocolotes species are shades of tan, gray, brown, or yellow in color, often with dark markings. In some species, the color pattern is quite bold. Tropiocolotes can be distinguished from other geckos by the following combination of characteristics: hyoid without second ceratobranchial cartilages; 14 scleral ossicles; stapedial foramen present; frontal single; parietals paired; nasals paired; cloacal bones present; phalangeal formula 2-3-4-5-3/2-3-4-5-4 (manus/pes); paraphalangeal elements absent; eye with vertical pupil with notched margins; digits free, not expanded, with lateral serrations, but no lateral fringe; non-expanded subdigital lamellae are keeled; digits not bent at joints; claws present; dorsal scalation imbricate, with fairly large, rhomboid scales; preanal pores absent; tail moderate, of average width, tapering, cylindrical, not distinctly segmented; females lay two hard-shelled eggs (Kluge 1967, Russell and Bauer 2008, Loveridge 1947, Szczerbak and Gulubev 1996).


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CommentSubspecies: Some authors (like SZCZERBAK 1986, Proc. SEH Meeting 1985: 705) only recognize somalicus as subspecies. Others [including us] consider T. t. somalicus as full species such as RÖSLER 2000 who recognizes only occidentalis and algericus as subspecies.

Type species: Tropiocolotes tripolitanus is the type species of the genus Tropiocolotes PETERS 1880.

Distribution: has been reported from Sudan but probably not present there (L. Chirio, pers. comm. via S. Meiri, 1 Aug 2012). See map in Machado et al. 2020 (Fig. 1). 
References
  • Baha el Din, S. 2006. A guide to the reptiles and amphibians of Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo. xvi + 359 pp.
  • Baha El Din, S. M. 2001. A synopsis of African and South Arabian geckos of the genus Tropiocolotes (Reptilia: Gekkonidae), with a description of a new species from Egypt. Zoology in the Middle East 22: 45-56 - get paper here
  • Bauer, A.M. & Günther,R. 1991. An annotated type catalogue of the geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae) in the Zoological Museum , Berlin. Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin 67: 279-310 - get paper here
  • Bauer, Aaron M.; Jonathan C. DeBoer , Dylan J. Taylor 2017. Atlas of the Reptiles of Libya. Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. 64 (8): 155-318 - get paper here
  • Boulenger, G.A. 1885. Catalogue of the lizards in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I. Geckonidae, Eublepharidae, Uroplatidae, Pygopodidae, Agamidae. London: 450 pp. - get paper here
  • Boulenger, George A. 1891. Catalogue of the reptiles and batrachians of Barbary (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), based chiefly upon the notes and collections made in 1880-1884 by M. Fernand Lataste. Tr. Zool. Soc. 13: 93-164
  • Böhme, Wolfgang & Jeffrey Heath 2018. Amphibian and reptilian records from south-central Mali and western Burkina Faso. Bonn zoological Bulletin 67 (1): 59–69 - get paper here
  • Geniez, P.; Mateo, J.A.; Geniez, M. & Pether, J. 2004. The amphibians and reptiles of the Western Sahara (former Spanish Sahara) and adjacent regions. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt, 228 pp. [reviewed in Reptilia GB 44: 81]
  • Johann, H. 1981. Herpetologische Eindrücke auf einer Reise durch die Sahara. Herpetofauna 3 (13): 17-21 - get paper here
  • KRAUSE, VALENTINA; FARAHAM AHMADZADEH, MOSTAFA MOAZENI, PHILIPP WAGNER & THOMAS M. WILMS 2013. A new species of the genus Tropiocolotes Peters, 1880 from western Iran (Squamata: Sauria: Gekkonidae). Zootaxa 3716 (1): 022–038 - get paper here
  • Lanza, B. 1990. Amphibians and reptiles of the Somali Democratic Republic: check list and biogeography. Biogeographia, 14: 407-465 [1988] - get paper here
  • Loveridge, A. 1947. Revision of the African lizards of the family Gekkondiae. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 98: 1-469 - get paper here
  • Machado, Luís, Daniele Salvi, D James Harris, José C Brito, Pierre-André Crochet, Philippe Geniez, Faraham Ahmadzadeh, and Salvador Carranza. 2020. Systematics, Biogeography and Evolution of the Saharo-Arabian Naked-Toed Geckos Genus Tropiocolotes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 155: 106969 [print 2021] - get paper here
  • Martínez del Mármol, Gabriel; D. James Harris, Philippe Geniez, Philip de Pous, and Daniele Salvi 2019. Amphibians and Reptiles of Morocco. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 478 pp - get paper here
  • Mármol, Gabriel Martínez del; Ander Izagirre-Egaña, Sonke Frahm & Marco Sassoè 2023. Herpetofauna of Mauritania: results of a field survey. Bol. Asoc. Herpetol. Esp. (2023) 34 Preprint-101 - get paper here
  • Padial, J. M. 2006. COMMENTED DISTRIBUTIONAL LIST OF THE REPTILES OF MAURITANIA (WEST AFRICA). Graellsia, 62(2): 159-178 - get paper here
  • Papenfuss, T. J. 1969. Preliminary analysis of the reptiles of arid central West Africa. Wasmann Journal of Biology 27:249—325 - get paper here
  • Parker, H. W. 1942. The lizards of British Somaliland. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard 91: 1—101 - get paper here
  • Peters, W. 1881. Über die von Mm. Gerhard Rohlfs und Dr. A. Stecker auf der Reise nach der Oase Kufra gesammelten Amphibien. Monatsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1880: 305-309 - get paper here
  • Rösler, H. 2000. Kommentierte Liste der rezent, subrezent und fossil bekannten Geckotaxa (Reptilia: Gekkonomorpha). Gekkota 2: 28-153
  • Rösler, Herbert 2017. Gecko-Chorologie (Squamata: Gekkota). Gekkota (4): 1-160
  • Rouag R, Ziane N, De Sousa M 2024. A tentative list of reptilian fauna of Algeria and their conservation status. Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e120471 - get paper here
  • Schleich, H.H., Kästle,W., Kabisch, K. 1996. Amphibians and Reptiles of North Africa. Koeltz, Koenigstein, 627 pp.
  • Schlüter, U. 2004. Zwerggeckos (Tropiocolotes PETERS 1880) aus Nordafrika - Lebensräume, Verhalten, Pflege und Nachzucht. Draco 5 (18): 52-58 - get paper here
  • Shcherbak, N. N. [= Szczerbak], and M. L. Golubev 1996. Gecko fauna of the USSR and contiguous regions. SSAR [Russian original published in 1986]. [book review in Salamandra 36 (2): 138]
  • Sindaco R. 2007. An addition to the herpetofauna of Eritrea:Tropiocolotes somalicus PARKER, 1942. Herpetozoa 19 (3/4): 177-179 - get paper here
  • Sindaco, R. & Jeremcenko, V.K. 2008. The reptiles of the Western Palearctic. Edizioni Belvedere, Latina (Italy), 579 pp. - get paper here
  • Sow, Andack Saad; Fernando Martínez-Freiría, Pierre-André Crochet, Philippe Geniez, Ivan Ineich, Hamidou Dieng, Soumia Fahd, José Carlos Brito 2015. Atlas of the distribution of reptiles in the Parc National du Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania. Basic and Applied Herpetology - get paper here
  • Spawls, Stephen; Tomáš Mazuch & Abubakr Mohammad 2023. Handbook of Amphibians and Reptiles of North-east Africa. Bloomsbury, 640 pp. - get paper here
  • Tlili, Wided; Aymen Nefla, Michel Delaugerre, Ridha Ouni, Saïd Nouira 2014. Factors determining Gekkotan (Reptilia, Sauria) distribution in Tunisia (North Africa). Acta Herpetologica 9 (2): 203-217 - get paper here
  • Trape, J.F.; Trape, S. & Chirio, L. 2012. Lézards, crocodiles et tortues d'Afrique occidentale et du Sahara. IRD Orstom, 503 pp. - get paper here
  • Velo-Antón, G., Henrique, M., Liz, A.V. et al. 2022. DNA barcode reference library for the West Sahara-Sahel reptiles. Scientific Data 9(1): 459. - get paper here
  • Werner,F. 1929. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse einer zoologischen Forschungsreise nach Westalgerien und Marokko. Sitzungsb. Akad. Wiss. Wien, math.-naturw. kl., Abt. 1, 138; 1-34 - get paper here
 
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